Digital Art Zone

Dear DAZ

I understand all hands are on deck at the moment dealing with the store and forum issues - we are eager for these to be fixed asap.

Let’s add Metadata Guidelines / Consistency to the todo list shall we? I didn’t publish metadata guidelines in Feb because your “whole new website and system” was imminent, but I’m noticing more and more errors and inconsistencies creeping into the metadata as time goes by. I’m referring specifically to the new products being released. For example, Basicwear for Genesis doesn’t even have wardrobe items declared as compatibility bases, which means the material presets don’t show up in Smart Content!!! I have dozens and dozens of such examples.

Who is doing the metadata for the products - is it the PA’s themselves or is there a DAZ team doing so? If there is a team working on it, are they using guidelines and is any QA being done prior to release? When we pay for products - and we pay more for Genesis products than we used to for Gen4 - then we expect more in return. The website and forum experience is miserable; communication is non-existent; customer service is lagging (we understand this is due to the huge workload); and now metadata which is one of your key differentiators is starting to show cracks.

Please look into this as a priority once the more immediate issues are dealth with. There are many people in the community - myself included - who have volunteered to help with the metadata and yet we have not been given an opportunity to do so.

I agree, and as it is unrelated to the website, I imagine the people doing the metadata are currently working on converting everything to .zips, but that’s just my WAG.  It IS something that needs to be done, however, for the Smart Content system to be useful.

For example, why did the free ultralight show up in Smart Content in a brand new category of Transport, not under Default like EVERY other item? Is this a trend of the future or just one big mistake?

barbult - 04 July 2012 12:20 PM

For example, why did the free ultralight show up in Smart Content in a brand new category of Transport, not under Default like EVERY other item? Is this a trend of the future or just one big mistake?

That’s a mistake, if you reset your download it has been corrected.

Thanks! Is it just the metadata that I need to reinstall, or did product files change, too?

I THINK it was just the metadata, but I’m not certain.  The bug report doesn’t mention any other changes.

fixmypcmike - 04 July 2012 12:23 PM

barbult - 04 July 2012 12:20 PM

For example, why did the free ultralight show up in Smart Content in a brand new category of Transport, not under Default like EVERY other item? Is this a trend of the future or just one big mistake?

That’s a mistake, if you reset your download it has been corrected.

Thanks Mike, off to reset

EDIT: the product files have a new version number 1.1 up from 1.0 same as the metadata file.

I’ll add my nod to this - there has to be some form of consistency for this.  I am about to (and I shudder at this) blow away my runtime/content and re-install from scratch and I am promising myself I will handle things differently this time, including monkeying with the metadata to bend it to what I think it should be for some of the products.